The Consortium of Naval Libraries:
Procuring & Providing World-Class Information

By Lynda Pierce

The Consortium of Naval Libraries (CNL), formed in 1997, has a vision to provide world-class information access and services to the Navy and be the Department of Defense leader in virtual library development. Under the dynamic leadership of the Department of the Navy (DON) Librarian, the CNL has made great strides towards realizing this vision.

The CNL has quickly matured since it was formed. Starting as a simple thought, which expanded to a mission and then broadened to a vision, the CNL has grown from zero to sixty member libraries in just three years. These libraries include the Naval Warfare Centers, Naval Research Laboratory, the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, the Naval Postgraduate School and the U.S. Naval Academy - to name a few.

CNL's mission is "to facilitate state-of-the-art access to library and information services to all Naval personnel in support of their missions, whether for operational readiness, research and development, situational awareness, decision-making, education and training, or personal enrichment, wherever, whenever and in an appropriate format." In fulfilling this mission, the efforts of the Procurement Working Group have reaped great benefits for CNL.

Vendors/publishers of information and knowledge resources now offer numerous procurement and licensing options. The integration of the traditional abstracting and indexing products with today's full-text, image and hyper-linking possibilities has added a new layer of complexity to the choices. The Procurement Working Group analyzes the vendor and publisher options extracting the most attractive pricing models for consideration. Based on the premise that the DON can buy a product and provide shared access across sites, the Working Group focused on three pricing models: discounts for consortia, pricing related to number of simultaneous users and the use of a flat rate for an entire organization or enterprise. These three pricing models support CNL's goals of securing lower prices, new resources as a consortium and increasing access to products.

Resources procured during FY99 included Jane's Defence Weekly, COMPENDEX, INSPEC and ComputerSelectWeb - all virtual, Web-based resources which are now being shared by five Naval sites and available from each user's desktop. The consortium approach resulted in cost savings in FY99 of $150,000, not including time and labor saved by each of the five sites.

CNL procured nine additional resources in FY00, including various Bell & Howell Information and Learning PROQUEST products, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Library, and Periscope. This time eleven libraries fully participated, with six additional sites joining in for various procurements resulting in a cost savings of $743,499. The FY00 effort will continue to see significant savings over individual procurements as additional resources are purchased by the consortium over the next few months. As the CNL's Procurement Working Group continues, CNL will be able to buy shared access across a greater number of organizations; provide additional information, resources and opportunities for small sites; and acquire more specialized, less frequently used resources.

With the recent alignment of DON librarian functions and activities of the CNL within DON CIO, the CNL gained access to valuable business experience in enterprise licensing and Department-wide exposure. As Department-wide working groups look for opportunities to improve utilization and management of Information Technology, the CNL is ready to step up to the task with a multitude of resources already available.

Membership in CNL working groups is voluntary, and DON military or civilian personnel are encouraged to participate. For information, see the Library/Information Services focus area on the DON CIO web site at www.doncio.navy.mil. The Web site also provides links to several CNL member libraries.